


A Seed Is Planted And Grows

by delmcatee



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-20
Updated: 2012-06-20
Packaged: 2017-11-08 04:46:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/439302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delmcatee/pseuds/delmcatee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hank finally understands Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahandas Gandhi and finds his own conviction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Seed Is Planted And Grows

**Author's Note:**

> Post X-Men First Class and before the first X-Men movie. Heavily influenced by Captain America's speech to Spider-Man during Civil War.

It took Mark Twain for Hank to understand Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahandas Gandhi. He knew MLK and Gandhi's words clearly but he could not fathom their conviction. To stand up to the world? Fear had too strong a hold on him. He knew he was brave, he had been at Cuba after all, but to face the world as a beast? He just couldn't see it. In fact he had yet to leave the Westchester mansion. But then he found a book of Mark Twain's essays and in particular the letter [_In a republic, Who is the Country?_](http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/somethingelse/twain.html)  
 _  
Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country--hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.  
  
_ Once he had read that, he knew what Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahandas Gandhi knew. That when the mob, the press and the world told you to move, your purpose was to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and tell the whole world, "No you move."  
  
He understood Charles and Erik's truth as well then. And he was able to see his own.


End file.
